107 FOOTY PHYSIO

Now that we have got confirmation of the surgical procedure, it’s time to go to work on the foot.  The biggest task ahead is to get the size of the foot down to a level that I can squeeze it into a skate.  If I can do that, I can resume playing hockey.  My stamina is pretty good and once I can get onto the ice doing more strenuous exercise than walking, the stamina should improve quickly.  We shall see what the next month of daily physio produces.

Hershal started to work on my foot with ultra sound and then hooked it up to a machine with large suction cups and electrical stimulation.  It’s sort of like a very large TENS machine.  He told me to let him know when the pulse was strong enough and still comfortable.  He kept cranking the power up, but I couldn’t feel a thing.  My foot was not flexing or anything.  In fact, he got it up to full power and I still could not feel a thing.

Three days into treatment, the office called and cancelled the rest of my appointments for a week.  It turns out that Hershal had broken his ankle doing Jiu Jitsu.  In fact, here I was with a bad right foot and he also broke his right ankle.  After only a week away, he resumed my therapy, walking around in the identical cast that I wore, except smaller.

We were quite a pair, but I guess it worked out.  It gave Hershal empathy for his patients.  Not that he didn’t have empathy anyway, but it gave him new appreciation for what his patients were going through.  Except in my case, I could not feel my foot and he was in a lot of pain with his, especially by the end of the week.  So much so that he had to cancel Friday’s appointment.  He apparently is also a subscriber to the theory of “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing”.

After missing only, the one day and after the weekend, he was ready to get back to work.  It was time to try a more aggressive treatment on my foot.  The office had just acquired a test machine called Shockwave Therapy.  It produces ultra-sonic pulses that are designed to trigger an inflammatory response which triggers the body’s healing abilities.

He started with that on my foot and while I couldn’t feel anything before, I could sure feel this.  It was very strong and was literally bordering on painful.  It was tolerable though and only lasted 5 minutes.  It produced quick results and my foot looked smaller.  Whether it was, or if I just wanted it to be, I don’t know.

BOOT SUCCESSFULLY ON

RIGHT BOOT STRAINED
LACES

When I got home Ii took my old boots out to try them on.  They are a 12W as compared to my 13EEEE runners.  With a bit of effort, I was able to get the boot on my foot and get the boot laced up.  That buoyed my spirits considerably.  So much so, I went downstairs and dug my skates out.  I sat and tried to put my skates on, but in a crushing disappointment, I could not even get my toes into the skate.

That isn’t too surprising though.  My shoe size prior to this whole series of incidents was a size 11 and my skates are a size 9.  Most hockey players wear skates that are one or two sizes smaller than their shoe size.  The reason being is that the skates feel like they are part of your feet and give you a much better feel for the ice.  So, I’m hoping that we can get my foot size down enough to squeeze my foot in.  We shall see what happens.

We continued with various treatments on my foot and there is an improvement, in that I am now feeling pain in the foot.  Hershal says this is a good thing, because it means the nerves are becoming uncompressed and starting to be able to feel again.  I hope it bears out.  The size has not reduced at all and in fact it seems slightly bigger again.  Enough so that I cannot get my foot back in the boot.  I have been shopping all over, but nobody makes boots big enough to fit my feet.  Certainly, long enough, but not anywhere near wide enough.  My thought is that boots would give me better support than the runners.  So, the saga continues.